This invention relates to lids to cover containers for liquids, such as glasses and cups, and, more particularly, relates to a lid that prevents accidental spillage of the liquid within the container while allowing a person to drink the liquid from the container without removal of the lid.
When liquids, such as coffee, tea, juice, and the like, are carried in cups or glasses in moving vehicles, such as airplanes, trains, buses, or cars, the irregular movement of the vehicle often causes the liquid to jiggle and splash within the container. The jiggling and splashing can cause the liquid to spill out of the container and over the hands and clothing of the person using the container or over the clothing of persons in the vicinity of the user. Also, if the container is set down by the user while the vehicle is moving, the motion of the vehicle may tip the container over, spilling the contents of the container.
Many attempts have been made to provide a container and cover for preventing the splashing and spilling of liquids for use in moving vehicles; however, such attempts have resulted in cups, containers, and covers that are expensive to produce, difficult and cumbersome to use, and typically provide that the container and cup be made to accommodate one another so that a universal lid for use on many different types of containers has not been produced. An example of a container lid that attempts to solve the splashing problem is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,394,928, issued July 26, 1983 to Morris Philip. The Philip lid addresses the problem of splashing of the liquid while the cup is in a vertical position; however, it does not address the problem of spillage of the liquid when the cup is tilted sideways. In fact, the Philip lid is designed to allow flow of liquid when the cup is tilted sideways. Also, the disclosure in Philip describes a cover and container that are constructed to cooperate with one another so that the cover can only be used on the matching container and is not a universal cover for use with many different types of containers. Likewise, the covers shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,322,014 and 3,915,355 also deal with the splashing problem but not the problem of spilling of the liquid from the container when the container is in a horizontal position.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a lid for a container to prevent spilling of liquid from the container when the container is in a horizontal or even inverted position and to prevent splashing of the liquid from the container when the container is in a vertical position.
Another object of the invention is to provide such a lid that is able to be used with standard containers and does not need a customized container to be adapted to it.
Another object of the invention is to provide such a lid that is relatively simple and inexpensive to manufacture.